The greatest form of evangelism?
For so many reasons, when the church thinks of evangelism it generally thinks of two things.
Evangelism is not marketing.
We tend to think that a slick marketing campaign is the way to get people into the doors. Or that new pastors will bring new people. Or that if we only had the newest building then families would join the church. Or if we had the greatest bible studies or program for people to come to during the week that they would abandon their other obligations and come to church.
But the fact of the matter is there is only one thing in the history of the church that has ever worked to bring people into the faith and lead to transformed lives.
And it is not a new building or a new sign. (Do you know that there is a church that does not have a sign in front of it?!) It is not a program or a study. It is not new pastors or new leadership. The one thing that has always lead to transformation is a church that has generous people.
Generosity is the greatest evangelism that we have. It is the greatest practice that we have that shows people who we are and what we are about. Because when we see a generous life it is so compelling that we cannot help but be drawn into it and learn more.
Watch the first 4 minutes of this video:
This Is My Home from Mark on Vimeo.
People don’t come back to this man’s home because of the collection of odd and peculiar items in the home. No! People come back to this man’s home and bring friends because of his hospitality, his invitation, his generosity.
Everyone is compelled to see a person who lives out the generous life. Because deep down everyone knows generosity is the way we ought to be. Everyone longs to know how to live the life that gives everything yet grows all the richer.
Historically, Christians are people who are defined by generosity. We are the people who look at what we have and say “All this isn’t ours! We’re just like an overseer! And if [someone] tells us that “this is mine.” We’ll tell them, “You know what? It’s yours? It’s yours!” We give it.”
Generosity is not a marketing campaign, it is a lifestyle.
So Church, temper the desire for good marketing with the spiritual practice of generosity and see the greatest form of evangelism at work.
- Something that people do on street corners (and then there are feelings/opinions about that
- A marketing campaign
Evangelism is not marketing.
We tend to think that a slick marketing campaign is the way to get people into the doors. Or that new pastors will bring new people. Or that if we only had the newest building then families would join the church. Or if we had the greatest bible studies or program for people to come to during the week that they would abandon their other obligations and come to church.
But the fact of the matter is there is only one thing in the history of the church that has ever worked to bring people into the faith and lead to transformed lives.
And it is not a new building or a new sign. (Do you know that there is a church that does not have a sign in front of it?!) It is not a program or a study. It is not new pastors or new leadership. The one thing that has always lead to transformation is a church that has generous people.
Generosity is the greatest evangelism that we have. It is the greatest practice that we have that shows people who we are and what we are about. Because when we see a generous life it is so compelling that we cannot help but be drawn into it and learn more.
Watch the first 4 minutes of this video:
This Is My Home from Mark on Vimeo.
People don’t come back to this man’s home because of the collection of odd and peculiar items in the home. No! People come back to this man’s home and bring friends because of his hospitality, his invitation, his generosity.
Everyone is compelled to see a person who lives out the generous life. Because deep down everyone knows generosity is the way we ought to be. Everyone longs to know how to live the life that gives everything yet grows all the richer.
Historically, Christians are people who are defined by generosity. We are the people who look at what we have and say “All this isn’t ours! We’re just like an overseer! And if [someone] tells us that “this is mine.” We’ll tell them, “You know what? It’s yours? It’s yours!” We give it.”
Generosity is not a marketing campaign, it is a lifestyle.
So Church, temper the desire for good marketing with the spiritual practice of generosity and see the greatest form of evangelism at work.
Read a book while it is being written, write a sermon as it is preached
Sylvia Hartmann is an author who is writing a book. Not a big deal, loads of people write books.
But Harrmann is using Google Docs to write her latest book, The Dragon Lords. Which means that everyone who clicks on her link to the manuscript - found here - at a certain time of day will be able to see her literally type each letter and watch the story unfold before your eyes.
You will be able to read a book as it is written.
What a great idea and what a great way to read/encounter a book.
To me this is an example, in part, of what it means to have a dialogue sermon.
In a dialogical sermon, there is a primary focus for the conversation and the preacher functions like a guide. As the focus is presented then people are asked to contribute to the creation of the sermon as it is being preached. Where most people will see a conversation others, with the eyes of Gospel, will see a sermon being preached.
For me, the metaphor of a journey does not "work" well to describe the spiritual life, but it does work well for describing dialogical sermons.
The preacher is the guide who asks the community to walk with them for a while. As the community walks together, people will notice that there are other paths to walk down. Through the conversation people may walk down paths and even run along rabbit trails. This can look or feel messy or even as though we are "not going anywhere". The guide has faith that the community will discover together where God is calling them to walk.
Other than helping the community move along the path(s) of conversation, the guild is also the one who is trained to see other paths and trails that the community has missed. Because of the guide's training and education and experience, the community trusts the guide will show them things they otherwise would have missed. (This is why sermon preparation for a dialogue sermon can be much more rigorous than a traditional monologue sermon, because you have to be on the look out for the non-obvious of you will not be able to point the overlooked trails out.)
When an author invites people to read a book as it is written it can be a scary thing for the author because of the level of vulnerability the author puts herself in. Hartmann is allowing many people to see her process, her edits, her mistakes and even provide feedback and input into the creation of the story. She is open to what the community has to say and is able to discover what the community's gems are and integrate them into the story.
Frankly, if that is not a way to do a sermon, then I don't know what a sermon in a community would look like.
But Harrmann is using Google Docs to write her latest book, The Dragon Lords. Which means that everyone who clicks on her link to the manuscript - found here - at a certain time of day will be able to see her literally type each letter and watch the story unfold before your eyes.
What a great idea and what a great way to read/encounter a book.
To me this is an example, in part, of what it means to have a dialogue sermon.
In a dialogical sermon, there is a primary focus for the conversation and the preacher functions like a guide. As the focus is presented then people are asked to contribute to the creation of the sermon as it is being preached. Where most people will see a conversation others, with the eyes of Gospel, will see a sermon being preached.
For me, the metaphor of a journey does not "work" well to describe the spiritual life, but it does work well for describing dialogical sermons.
The preacher is the guide who asks the community to walk with them for a while. As the community walks together, people will notice that there are other paths to walk down. Through the conversation people may walk down paths and even run along rabbit trails. This can look or feel messy or even as though we are "not going anywhere". The guide has faith that the community will discover together where God is calling them to walk.
Other than helping the community move along the path(s) of conversation, the guild is also the one who is trained to see other paths and trails that the community has missed. Because of the guide's training and education and experience, the community trusts the guide will show them things they otherwise would have missed. (This is why sermon preparation for a dialogue sermon can be much more rigorous than a traditional monologue sermon, because you have to be on the look out for the non-obvious of you will not be able to point the overlooked trails out.)
When an author invites people to read a book as it is written it can be a scary thing for the author because of the level of vulnerability the author puts herself in. Hartmann is allowing many people to see her process, her edits, her mistakes and even provide feedback and input into the creation of the story. She is open to what the community has to say and is able to discover what the community's gems are and integrate them into the story.
Frankly, if that is not a way to do a sermon, then I don't know what a sermon in a community would look like.
The Idea behind Rethink Conspiracy
Kyle Roberson is the founder of RethinkConspiracy.org and the director of online discipleship at White's Chapel UMC in Southlake, Texas. Every week, Kyle publishes an online newspaper which you can subscribe and read by clicking the red bar on the box to the right. Below, Kyle writes about what it means to Rethink Conspiracy.
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conspire: verb, to act or work together toward the same result or goal.
Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code, once said, "Everyone loves a conspiracy." I happen to agree with Brown on this observation regarding conspiracy, but I would submit a follow-up question, "Does everyone know what a conspiracy is?" A conspiracy, by my definition is a living, breathing organism made up of many members operating outside of public attention for a purpose. The three most predominant qualities of a conspiracy are that it is close, quiet, and quick.
CLOSE
The root of the word conspiracy is conspire, whose root is the latin conspirare, literally to breathe together (con: with, spirare: to breathe [as in respiratory or respirate]). To breathe together, to be in that close of proximity with another, brings to mind an organism made up of members in unity with one another so closely they breathe in and out together. Breath, very life itself, shared amongst members to keep the organism (community, organization, etc.) alive.
QUIET
A conspiracy acts in secrecy, outside the attention of the public, its' plans secret from the general population until it is ready to act out. Secrets can be a valuable resource. When things are done in secret by an organization or community, often no one member can claim sole responsibility.
QUICK
This secrecy, coupled with the tight-knit nature means a conspiracy can act quickly and efficiently with very little attention placed upon itself while individual members can continue to function without disruption to their own daily life, schedule, or responsibilities.
Conspiracies, however, traditionally have been associated with the purpose of disruption or disobedience, sometimes violent in nature. What if we organized a conspiracy around the purpose of taking care of our neighbors by working secretly to better our local, national, and global communities? Could we redeem "conspiracy" to become some highly mobilized and effective group of people acting for good out of love of neighbor? Could we embrace the secret nature of conspiracy as a therapeutic means of putting aside our pride and need for fame to explore humility? Could we do more than individual random acts of kindness? Could we combine our collective power to do more good together than we could on our own?
Whatever your reason: Altruism, conviction, faith, desire to "pay it forward", would you join this conspiracy?
Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.